Winton l



W. L. SPRINGER.

METHOD OF COMPOSITION OF RULED FORMS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 21, 1912.

1 1 94,892 Patented Aug. 15, 1916.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WIN TON L. SPRINGER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN TYPE FOUNDERS COMPANY, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

METHOD OF COMPOSITION OF RULED FORMS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 15, 1916.

Application filed September 21, 1912. Serial No. 721,691.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, lVINToN L. SPRINGER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Composition of Ruled Forms, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the art of printing and has especial reference to improvements therein whereby the compositor is enabled with greater facility and accuracy than has heretofore been possible to set up a form embodying tabular ruling and spacing either horizontal or vertical or both, and also to more readily insert leads between adjacent series of quads in adjusting the linespacings of forms in the galley.

As is well known, it is customary in this art where tabular ruling is required for the compositor to build the form up gradually by means of rule lengths and spacing elements such as quads, spaces and slugs taking the component elements as required from his case and calculating the number and disposition of each necessary to produce the desired pattern of cross ruling and interspacing. Such composition is exceedingly tedious and time consuming and an excess charge is usually made fora job involving much of such tabular or ruled work.

According to my invention the piece-meal building up of a tabular or ruled form is avoided as is also the subsequent work of taking down or distributing the form. This simplification of the work of the compositor is accomplished by the employment en masse of a block of spacing elements such as quads of square cross section and having tapering upper ends loosely assembled in a galley in horizontal and vertical series, the adjacent inclined faces of the quad terminals defining the walls of horizontally and vertically extending grooves into which the lengths of rule or lead may be inserted and pressed between the rows of quads which yield sufficiently to permit of such insertion. In this way working with a block of loosely assembled quads spread before him the compositor can quickly arrange the rule to produce the pattern clesired and when it has served its purpose as a printing form he merely withdraws the rule lengths and sets the quad mass aside for future use or he leaves the entire form intact and rearranges the rule in such stock form from time to time to produce the new tabular efi'ect which may be required in another job.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood by those skilled in this art I have in the accompanying drawing illustrated the carrying out of the same.

In this drawing, Figure 1 is a fragmentary plan view showing in the galley a block of quads adapted for the carrying out of the invention; Fig 2 is a similar view showing a form in which the vertical and horizontal rule lengths have'been inserted; Fig. 3 is a section on the line 33 of Fig. 2; and Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7 represent in detail perspective on an enlarged scale divers forms of quads adapted for such use.

In the drawings the reference numeral 11 designates a portion of a galley having a marginal portion 12. Within the galley is shown a block 13 of quads loosely assembled in vertical or horizontal rows or series.

. Quads and other spacing elements are customarily kept in the printers case and taken therefrom individually as may be required to space between lines as the'matter is set up progressively in the stick, and where a ruled form is being set a length of rule is' placed in position followed by as many lines of quads or other spacing elements as may be required, then another length of rule followed by other quads, short lengths or rule being inserted cross wise to meet the requirements of the pattern. According to the present invention the printer keeps on hand as a stock form the block of quads designated as 13 and when a ruled form is required he places this stock form in the galley as shown in Fig. 1, so loosely assembled as to permit of the separation of the elements sufficiently to receive therebetween lengths of rule and at the same time to avoid the falling apart of the elements. It will be observed that the upper end of each quad is inclined or beveled in such manner as to impart thereto a tapering end face which may be pyramidal as shown in Fig. 4, conical as shown in Fig. 5, or it may be in the form of a truncated pyramid or cone, or it may be beveled on three sides only as shown in Fig. 7. In either case the tapering sides of adjacent series of quads provide between the series intersecting V-shaped grooves extending horizontally and vertically and defining at the bottom of the grooves the lines of separation or cleavage between the adjacent series of quads. The compositor using these grooves as a guide is enabled to readily insert the rule lengths 1% wherever required by the tabular form, the inclined walls of the groove serving to direct the rule length into the space between the series of quads and the body of quads yielding sufficiently to permit the insertion of the rule lengths. Similarly the shorter lengths of rule 15 are inserted to produce the cross lines of the pattern. Slugs 16 may be used as required or desired to fill out the form which will be then transferred bodily to the chase and locked therein to form a component part of the complete form for printing.

After use and when no longer required the ruled form is again removed to the galley and the lengths of rule taken out restoring the block of quads to the condition shown in Fig. 1 to be set aside for future use, or without removing the rule it may be set aside as shown in Fig. 2 with the rule left in position so that it can be rearranged upon a future occasion to meet the requirements of a new pattern.

It will thus be seen that my invention not only enables the compositor to quickly set up a tabular form by inserting the rule lengths in a block of quads lying before him, but it also does away with the labor of handling each of the quads in building up the form from the case and in distributing the same after use.

WVhile I have shown quads having different forms of end face adapted to my purpose it will readily be understood that other forms lend themselves to the purposes of the invention, the essential feature being that the upper end of the quad shall be tapered in such manner as to provide intersecting grooves between the adjacent series of quads in the block used as a stock form; and also that the block of quads held in reserve as a stock form may be of varying size, a large block being susceptible of division into smaller blocks where the rule form is of small area.

I claim:

1. In the art of printing, a stock form for use in printing ruled work composed of spacing elements, rectangular in cross section and with sides of equal dimensions, loosely assembled in horizontal and vertical series, the several elements having their upper ends tapered uniformly from the four sides thereof to provide intersecting grooves dividing the vertical and horizontal lines of separation between adjacent series and adapting the form for the insertion between the series by way of the grooves of rules of the lengths required to produce a desired pattern, substantially as set forth.

2. In the art of printing the improved method of producing a ruled form which consists in taking a block of loosely assembled spacing quads less than type high, of rectangular form with their four sides tapered to a point at their tops in pyramidal form, and inserting type high rules in selected grooves thus formed between adja cent lines of the quads, separating said quads by the thickness of said rules, locking up the forms, and printing therefrom, sub stantially as set forth.

WVINTON L. SPRINGER.

l/Vitnesses:

CHARLES P. Soumi, lVM. O. BELT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner 0! Patents, Washington, D. G. 

